Narendra Modi-led NDA government has failed people: Nitish Kumar

For the first time in the country, corporates have actually captured power by funding election in favour of a particular party.

By Nitish Kumar

The NDA government has done nothing to inspire the confidence of the people. The people are thoroughly disappointed with its shoddy performance and may be regretting why they voted for NDA. The common man was actually misled into believing the lofty promises BJP made to the people in the run-up to the general elections.

I accept three months are too short a period to judge the performance of any government, but the kind of beginning they have made has given strong clues to what lies ahead. During the election, an impression was created that they will get hold of black money in no time if they were voted to power. But have they done anything concrete which will make us believe that they are genuinely working to recover black money? The government will not like to hurt the interest of those who had opened their kitty to fund the election of BJP.

Ditto with inflation. They created an impression that it will be contained after the installation of an NDA government. Instead, the government hiked train fare by over 14% and freight rate by 6.5%. The joke was that petrol prices had become cheaper than tomato.

Again, they had made tall promises on how they would improve the condition of farmers. But what have they done? They increased the MSP of paddy by only Rs 50, which during the last two years was increased by Rs 150 to Rs 200. They doled out a subsidy of Rs 11,000 crore to sugar barons, ironically leading to increase in sugar price by Rs 1 to Rs 3 per kilogramme.

They have also reneged on their promise that they would accord special category status to Bihar besides special package during poll campaigns. Worse, state BJP leaders are saying Bihar does not deserve special category status under the present JD(U) regime. They have cheated Bihar.

Again the PM went to Nepal, but he took no initiative to discuss the flooding problem with the authorities of the Himalayan kingdom. Rivers originating from Nepal every year flood large swathes of land in Bihar, and the PM could have taken up the matter with Nepal. But that was not to be. The NDA government has failed the people every single day.

Now they are talking of digital India. But their core ideology is based on divisive politics. They would do everything to polarise India. They may now focus on digital propaganda to polarise the politics of this country. Besides, they are working on policies which will work in the interests of corporates. For the first time in the country, corporates have actually captured power by funding election in favour of a particular party.